Riding something of a crest of a wave, Glasgow’s The Ninth Wave are in Bristol bringing with them lofty expectations.
Having made quite a splash in their home city – a place not short of musical lineage and with unforgiving, if enthusiastic crowds – they now just need to win the rest of UK over. Support from BBC 6Music has certainly helped but, based on this show, they aren’t taking anything for granted.
Firstly, they look great. Four distinct characters, they are made up of cork-screw haired, topless drummer Lewis (who bears a passing resemblance to Danny Goffey of Supergrass and drums in much the same persistent, ferocious but flexible vein), passionate bassist and co-founder Elina, ice-cool keyboardist Louise and eye-liner clad, focused frontman Haydn Park-Patterson. Not a gang in a traditional band sense, but they have an alchemy that works visually and, more importantly, generates an impressive sound.
And what a sound. It’s great to see such hunger in the musicianship and a tightness of sound that can only have come from countless hours in the rehearsal room. The quartet go at it full throttle with little respite for 40 minutes, battering the crowd senseless with their passionate missives. In truth, they could do with adjusting the pace slightly, but that will come as the set expands.
Perhaps it’s the acoustics of the venue, but each instrument can be easily identified; Elina’s bass is the secret weapon, with a meatier sound than one guitar should be capable of, while the drums keep everything tightly together. The songs have a very similar trajectory; hair-raising blasts of indie-rock sparkled with a pinch of doom, but it’s a formula that works well and will earn them high praise during festival season.
On the occasion when a breather is taken, on new song Everything That You Have Left, they morph into a more balanced version of The XX. Perhaps aided by Lewis taking to the keys, an almost dub bass dominates the song, pushed closely by Louise’s (who, like all good keyboardists, barely looks up at the crowd) sympathetic keys. There are other reference points; cues have been taken from The Cure and White Lies in the intensely dramatic duel vocals of Haydn and Elina, who threatens to wrest the focus from the frontman, so powerful and rounded is her delivery.
That said, as the show concludes, Haydn leaves the crowd with no doubt as to who they should be looking at. Stripping to his waist and donning a pair of industrial gloves for closer Swallow, the frontman prowls gently around the stage. Like Lewis, he bears an uncanny resemblance to a music legend, in this case Bobby Gillespie, and portrays the same intensity, almost daring the crowd to look away.
Ones to watch in every sense.
good article apart from the fact that the bass player is millie.Elina left the band in 2017